Ohio inspires many to rejoice

That is part of the reason Norris, 17, is traveling today through the rural landscapes of central and southern Ohio. Recently he stopped for a snack and some gas here in Senecaville, where approximately two minutes ago he met this reporter, who is doing the same. He has been driving his new Pontiac Grand Am through similarly miniscule hamlets since 9:30 this morning, when he left his Shaker Heights home without telling anyone.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “I’m not Jack Kerouac. I’m not out to change the world with this trip. But passing through most of a town at 45 miles per hour, and then stopping at its gas station, is the closest I’ve come so far to defining exactly what beauty is for me.”

"In each town there's usually a gas station just like this, and, if you’re lucky, a McDonald's," he said. "It seems uniform but it isn’t. There probably are some houses on some of the unnamed roads further out, but I don't really have time to visit them all. Right after stopping I always have the urge to get into my car again and keep hopping from place to place. It's exhilarating, but maddening, too, in a way, because it's all in the anticipation. And I mean all of it."

Norris lunched earlier at SparkySpot, a gas station in Sparksville, a town of 232 residents near the Ohio-West Virginia border. Despite his desire to keep moving, he admitted that the station, which serves also as the only dine-in restaurant within twenty miles, left him "thoroughly impressed".

"The food was good. I also thought it especially twee how they painted 'Y'all come back now, y'hear?' on the roof, where you might otherwise just read ‘Thank you for choosing Citgo’. They're taking an active role in preserving their very worthy local culture, and they're certainly doing a good job of exposing it to tourists like myself."

But his visits are not without their sad moments. Of the regulars at SparkySpot, he said, "Never before have I been able to look into people's eyes and see their souls. These folks are [miserable]. I wonder what's wrong. If only they’d realize they're surrounded by so much beauty."

Norris said he has fallen into the habit of buying Twix bars at nearly every small-town gas station he encounters. "I never thought I'd like them. I remember going into it thinking they'd taste really artificial, and they do, but they're great that way! Still, I've got to be careful and remind myself that driving is a very sedentary activity. Those 22 grams of fat have nowhere to go but to those areas I’ve worked so hard to maintain," he said.

Though Norris denied having literary aspirations, he later contradicted himself with a rather conspicuous admission: "I'm almost to the point of having real conversations with the [gas station attendants]--ideally I'd like to ask them to tell their stories so that I can write them into a narrative later. But I keep getting the feeling that there are odd, irreconcilable differences between us that would make an interview awkward, if not impossible."

Norris arrived in Athens, his southernmost destination, earlier this afternoon, and hopes to make it home by 9:00 tonight. In a departure from his routine, he’s now slowly eating a Milky Way bar he bought at the Sunoco station here. "It's got a smoother taste. It's a nice break from what I usually eat," he said. "I can't wait till I get to Coshocton again. It's only a little further up here on Route 83--about 50 miles--and supposedly there are lots of Bigfoot sightings there. I can't wait to pass through and experience the culture again. It should be dusk by that point, and I hope the sunset is stunning. That would make it quite the quintessential sleepy town. I’ll probably need some gas by then, too. I think my tank’s leaking."

Comments

Written by Guest on 2004-03-27 20:38:07 that pic pwns

Written by Guest on 2004-03-28 17:10:05 hey I didn't even bother to fake scan this article!      WAAAAH

Sounds Familiar Written by Guest on 2004-10-24 11:06:27 I came from a tiny town inside a town. The bigger town was population 500 and the lil town inside the town was only population 12. Chew on that for a minute. Anyway, this article kinda hit home because all there was in the bigger town was a gas station that doubled as a diner. Go figure.  -LM

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